Tag: nutrition

  • Flexible Dieting Strategies

    Flexible Dieting Strategies

    Meeting our health and fitness goals should never mean we sacrifice doing what we enjoy. One of the most difficult parts of eating healthy is staying on track with our goals when we go out with friends or family and enjoy some delicious food or alcoholic beverages. The strategies we will discuss to overcome this are what we call “Flexible Dieting” strategies.  We briefly touch on this topic in our article: “How to Stay on Track with Fitness Goals During New Year’s Celebrations” so if you haven’t already, give that short article a read for more in-depth explanations regarding alcohol consumption.

    The two primary issues we encounter when eating at restaurants are avoiding the tastiest sounding foods and controlling the amount of food that we eat. The tastiest foods on the menu, unfortunately, are likely the ones containing the highest amounts of calories and it is easy to choose a relatively healthy food from the menu but then to order high calorie sides or desserts. An interesting fact in regard to hunger and the human body is that we are still evolutionarily and biologically wired to act as if we were still hunters and gatherers in the wild. What this means for us, living in a civilized society, is that when our body recognizes a nutrient composition in food that is high in fat, sugar, or both (none of which occurs naturally in the wild), our brains are immediately triggered to signal us to eat as much of it as we possibly can thinking “we may never encounter this food type ever again”. A large influx of energy from food sources that do not naturally occur on earth actually, believe it or not, have a very similar dopaminergic (dopamine) response to that of addictive drugs. We get so much dopamine released all at once, our bodies can, just like drug addiction, become dependent upon external sources (food, in this case) for dopamine secretion. This can actually make us feel like we need to keep eating to feel happy – no wonder it’s so hard to stop eating tasty foods!

    Since our bodies are biologically wired for survival, our brains want us to eat high sugar foods (candy) because our body wants that fast energy release we get from carbohydrate absorption, and it wants us to eat high fat foods (things prepared with a lot of butter and oils Ex: deep fried foods) because these have the most energy and would increase survival rate higher than protein or carbs alone. When we eat foods that are high in fat AND sugar (desserts) these effects are exacerbated even further and things can really start to get out of hand fast as I’m sure many of us have experienced at one time or another. This is why it may seem like “you always have room for dessert” and is also why we need to avoid these foods when eating out with friends and family.

    So, what can we do to avoid these things but still enjoy the time we spend out? We can either increase the amount of physical activity we do leading up to our dinner night or decrease the food we eat in preparation for a high calorie meal. For example, if we were going out to dinner Saturday night, we could exercise earlier that day and maybe even add some extra cardio to do at the end (having your heart rate at its highest at the end of a training session will keep our bodies burning extra calories for hours following training). On the other hand, if we are busy during the day and cannot exercise, we can implement a loose “intermittent fasting” strategy. As discussed in our previous articles “How to Eat to Maximize Strength and Muscle Gain”, “How to Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle”, and “Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training”, we definitely want to make sure we keep amino acids and muscle protein synthesis elevated as much as we possibly can to allow our muscles to recover to their fullest extent. A true “intermittent fasting” strategy would involve no food consumption for a specified portion of the day; we recommend using this specified portion of the day to only eat mostly protein as you can still feed your recovering muscles during our “fasting” time period. This way, we can still ensure we are recovering from our training, but with a lower caloric intake early in the day, in preparation for our large, high calorie meal at night.

    Strategies like these always seem very simple during explanation but can be difficult when it comes to the implementation. So, what if we exercise more, and eat less leading up to it but still end up eating too many calories (more than our maintenance calorie levels – further explanation can be found in previous articles)? We simplify these strategies by referencing the 24-hour circadian cycle but our body really adapts on a lifelong continuum of ever-changing circumstances. What this means, in simple terms, is that we shouldn’t worry about going over our calories one day in a week. As long as we are still under our maintenance calories for the entire week, we will still be putting ourselves in a position to lose body fat! For example, if our maintenance calorie intake is 2,000 calories, and we want to be 200 calories under each day to lose body fat, we can in turn, look at this in calories for the week. So 2,000 calories each day would be 14,000 calories for the week; eating 200 calories under maintenance each day would have us eating 12,600 calories for the week. If we go over one or two days, that is ok, we will just broaden our area of focus away from each day to each week. As long as we are still eating enough protein and spreading it out throughout the day to continue to feed our recovering muscles, its ok to go all the way down to 500 calories under our maintenance in order to make up for some larger meals or drinks we may have.

    If you or anyone you know struggles with flexible dieting, give us a call (312-666-7147) or email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be eager to offer you any more information you want to learn!

     

    References:

    • Antonio, 2018
    • Helms, 2015
    • McNaughten, 2016
    • Wiss, 2022
    • Tang, 2009
  • How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength – Part 1 and 2

    How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength – Part 1 and 2

    Part 1

    Are you someone who wants more progress out of the gym than what you are currently getting? There are 168 hours in a week, it’s easy to spend 2-3 of them exercising but the difficult part is supporting our goals throughout the full week with what we eat throughout every day. Nutrition is the most significant recovery strategy we can manipulate to get up to 100% more progress out of our training. In this article we will discuss nutritional strategies to maximize muscle growth (strength) and further our discussion of information from the previous articles titled “How to Prevent the Age-Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)”, “How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet”, and “How to Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle” so if you haven’t already, make sure you give those a read first.

    The two most important aspects of any nutrition plan for muscle growth are the amount of protein and the calorie content we eat. Put simply, if we eat more calories than we burn, we will gain weight (calorie surplus), and if we eat less calories than we burn, we will lose weight (calorie deficit). If our goal is to maximize the strength improvements we experience from our training sessions, it is best to eat in a calorie surplus. If we eat in a deficit, our body’s will have less available resources (protein and amino acids) to support our training goals as the food we eat also needs to support our daily function. That being said, it is without a doubt, possible to make significant steps toward our goals without a calorie surplus, but eating in a surplus will amplify these results even further! It is important to note that eating too high in a calorie surplus (more than 200 calories above maintenance per day) will result in even more strength improvements BUT this comes at the cost of more body gain and can contradict many of our goals. If you want to learn how to find how many calories to eat to support your personal training goals, read our article titled: “How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet”. Our calorie intake is very important in regard to our training goals, but our protein intake is just as if not more important!

    So why is protein more important than everything else we eat in terms of supporting our strength improvements? When we eat chicken, for example, we digest the meat into amino acids in our stomach which then are absorbed by our intestine wall, and moved into our bloodstream where they circulate and are transported to repair damaged cells (muscle cells in this case but this applies to any cell in our body in need of repair). There is somewhat of a “dose response” relationship with protein meaning, the more we eat, the more improvements we will make in the gym. This, however, is affected by the law of diminishing returns where once we eat more than 1g protein per lb. of body mass in a day, we start receiving “less of a benefit”.

    Thinking in terms of protein per meal, if we eat 1g per lb body mass and have 3 meals with 1 “protein snack” during the day (4 protein “feedings”), a 180lb person would be eating 45g of protein per meal if evenly distributed (180g protein per day). Now, if this same person were eating 1.2g per lb body mass (216g), this would then come out to ~55g of protein per meal. Scientific evidence has shown us that an increase of protein intake per meal from 25g – 55g yields 0.01% more muscle protein synthesis (use of amino acids in circulation). We can clearly see how the law of diminishing returns takes place; however, many people have looked at this data and concluded that because our returns are diminished, we shouldn’t even try. A better way of looking at this, is that a 0.01% increase, is still in fact, an increase.

     

    Part 2

    For more information regarding carbohydrate and fat intake, reference the articles titled: “How to Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle”. For a short recap of the article, we need to ensure we are eating 0.4 grams of fat per lb. of body mass we have – this will ensure our body is given what it needs (essential fatty acids) in order to optimally regulate our hormone functioning throughout the day. Hormones dictate our body’s response to different stressors (For example: testosterone tells our body to build more muscle, and cortisol tells our body to break things down – non-optimal hormone function could result in too much cortisol and yield less improvements experienced from our training sessions). To find our carbohydrate intake, first we will use the information from the “How to Start a Fat Loss Diet” article to find our basal metabolic rate (BMR). Then we will decide how much protein and fat we will eat using the information presented in the “How to Start a Fat Loss Diet” article. Once we have our total daily calorie intake (up to 200 more than our BMR), our protein (at least 1g per lb. of body mass), and fat (0.4g per lb body mass) intake, we will then fill the rest of the calories in with carbohydrates.

    For example, a 180lb male age 27, would have a BMR of 2,176 calories per day. In order to improve his muscle building capability without gaining excessive body fat, he will add 200 calories to this, bringing his total to 2,376 calories to eat per day. To start, we’ll say his protein intake is 1g per lb body mass at 180g per day. His fat intake will be 72 grams per day (0.4 x 180). Since protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9, adding his protein and fat intake together would put him at 1,368 calories. He will next fill in the rest of his calories (2,376-1,368=1,008) with carbohydrates which will come out to 252g carbs per day (1,008/4=252). This nutritional strategy is very effective for building strength as we mentioned above: the fat intake will allow for optimal hormone function, the protein intake is scientifically proven to provide our body with more protein than we can physically break down throughout our daily activities, and the carbohydrate intake will support resynthesis of our glycogen stores which we will discuss below.

    Our bodies use carbohydrates primarily as energy stored in our muscles called glycogen and to fuel our central nervous system. This information is important to us because if you are someone who does not participate in more than 1 exercise session per day, we do not need a significant amount of carbohydrates (150-300+g carbs) as our bodies have no trouble fully replenishing our glycogen stores over a 24 hour period even with low carbohydrate intake (60-150g carbs) as we can utilize a slower process (Lipolysis) of turning our fat stores into carbs for glycogen resynthesis (glycogenesis).

    So, using all of this information together: when not participating in multiple exercise sessions or competition events in a day, we can actually benefit from replacing some of our available calories from carbohydrate intake by eating more protein (up to 1.2g per lb. body mass). From the example used above, if this individual adopted a 1.2g per lb. body mass strategy rather than the 1g strategy, he would still eat 2,376 calories each day but will now eat 216g of protein instead of 180g and 216g carbohydrates (864 calories) each day. The fact that his protein and carb intake are the same is purely coincidence and will not happen in most cases. Now that we have a good understanding of the amounts of food, we should eat to support our goals, how often should we be eating to maximize our recovery?

  • Staying on Track with Fitness Goals During the Holidays

    Staying on Track with Fitness Goals During the Holidays

    With New Year’s Eve coming up we know that we will all be tempted to indulge in food and drinks to celebrate and bring in the New Year. This article will discuss what we can do to stay on track with our fitness goals while still being able to enjoy our time around friends and family.

    The bottom line is that we should not let our fitness goals get in the way of enjoying our lives. That being said, there are definitely some strategies we can take to keep us from drifting too far from our goals.

    The first, and easiest strategy we can take is to get some exercise on the day you know you will be celebrating. As long as the intensity is high enough, we will experience excess post oxygen consumption (EPOC) from exercise (strength training, biking, running, rowing, stair master) where we will increase our calories burned as our body continues to deliver oxygen to our working muscles throughout the rest of the day. If you know you will be eating or drinking more than usual, do a little extra exercise as this will help us stay on track and avoid us from gaining unnecessary weight. Exercise leading up to the celebration is a great way to get ahead of everything but what should we do during our celebrations?

    The issue we find with New Year’s Eve festivities is that those of us over the age of 21 have a tendency to drink alcohol. Drinking calories is counterintuitive to our fitness goals because we do not get as full from drinking our calories as compared to eating food.

    One contributing factor of satiety (how full we get) is time spent chewing and since we do not chew liquids, we do not get as full. Something we can do to combat this is obviously not to drink but for those of us who still might have a few drinks, we can choose drinks with clear alcohol (white rum, vodka, tequila, gin, etc.) as these have significantly lower calorie content than dark liquor (dark rum, whiskey, bourbon, etc.) or beer.

    If you are someone who mixes alcohol with soda, opting for a diet soda or tonic/seltzer water is a good alternative. When consuming alcohol, we should try to drink at least half of the fluid we drink in alcohol in water. So, if we drink 32 Oz. of alcohol throughout the night, we should at least drink 16 Oz. of water. Consuming electrolytes will also help our body retain the water we drink; so beginning the night with a low sugar sports drink or cup of water with an electrolyte packet would help us stay hydrated even more!

    Regardless, if you take part in drinking alcohol or not, we should all make a serious effort to eat well during this time. We discussed the rather obvious issue there is with drinking calories during the holidays but what isn’t as obvious is what we can do with our diet. The issue here comes from the macronutrient composition of the foods that are commonly served at holiday parties. Since this is a time of celebration, most of the food served at these events tend to either be high in fat, or high in sugar as we enjoy these the most.

    Foods with a combination of high fat and high sugar do not naturally occur in the world. Since our body’s physiology is built through evolutionary adaptations, as soon as we sense this non-naturally occurring food substance high in sugar (fast absorbing energy) and fat (high concentration of energy) we are immediately signaled (with dopamine) to eat as much as we possibly can as our bodies are unsure when we will be able to consume this much energy again. This is highly individual but can be the reason some of you may notice it is easier to abstain from eating certain foods rather than only have a little bit – once the flood gates open there’s no stopping.

    Staying away from these foods is a good idea but keeping our consumption of them low is also an acceptable strategy to take as long as you have good self-control. In addition to staying away from foods high in fat and sugar, we can try to fill ourselves up on protein (we need this to recover from our training and to meet our fitness goals) so that we are already too full to stuff ourselves by the time dessert comes around.

    As we said before, the most important part of all of this is to not let our fitness goals get in the way of us enjoying our time spent around friends and family. It is important for us to make an effort to be healthy but only if it does not take away from us enjoying the moments that matter most.

    If you have ever wondered what you could be doing differently during the holidays to continue to meet your goals, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals eager to help will be in touch with you!

  • How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    Have you ever set out on a fitness journey with one of your friends only to find that they are making more progress than you when you’re both doing the same thing? In this article we will discuss how your diet plan should be specifically tailored to you and your individual goals – and how your strategies may differ from that of others.

    At this point in time it is common knowledge that in order to lose body fat we need to be consuming less energy (food) than we are using throughout the day for daily activities (brushing your teeth, walking to your parked car, exercising, etc…). When this happens, we begin to use the energy we have stored in our bodies (body fat). This line of thinking could then lead us to believe that more is better, and that the fewer calories we take in, the more fat we will lose. This is true only in regards to short-term (1-2 weeks) fat loss but will not provide us with the desired results long term and can have adverse health effects in regards to our quality of life. This will be discussed further in the following article.

    It is easy to find an estimate of how many calories we should eat in a day to maintain our current body weight but since these numbers are only estimates it will take some guess and check work initially to get dialed in. The first step in this process is to find our basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is our energy expenditure estimate for a day. There are many online calculators you can use but we can also use the Harris Benedict Equation that these calculators are derived from:
    Men: BMR = 13.397W + 4.799H – 5.677A + 88.362
    Women: BMR = 9.247W + 3.098H – 4.330A + 447.593
    Where W = weight in kg, H = height in cm, and A = age in years

    For example, a 180lb, 5’11, 27 year old male would burn roughly 1,814 calories throughout the day without physical activity. To add physical activity into our daily energy expenditure, we will multiply this number (1,814) by our “activity factor”. If I were a sedentary individual (little or no exercise) I would multiply this number by 1.2, meaning I burn 2,176 calories throughout the day living a “sedentary lifestyle”. This multiplication changes as your activity level increases and is as follows:
    – Sedentary
    – x1.2 = 2,176 calories/day
    – Lightly active (light exercise/sports 2-3 days/week)
    – x1.375 = 2,494 calories/day
    – Moderately active (exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)
    – X1.55 = 2,811 calories/day
    – Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)
    – x1.725 = 3,174 calories/ day
    – Extra Active (Physically demanding manual labor jobs, i.e. construction or landscaping work)
    – x1.9 = 3,446 calories/ day

    Once we have our BMR, we can then aim to eat less calories than our given number to lose weight. We can also utilize the information regarding protein intake discussed in the “How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)” and “Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Exercise” articles posted on our website to help us keep our muscle mass throughout this process. Once our protein requirements have been met and we are ensuring optimal fat intake, we can then fill in the rest of our calories with carbohydrates. We should aim to eat no fewer than 500 calories less than our BMR as this will help us preserve muscle mass and lose body fat in a way that will not cause adverse health effects.

    Stay tuned for the next article where we will discuss various strategies we can implement to ensure that the weight we are losing is fat and not muscle in a safe and effective way. If you are someone looking to begin their fitness journey and are unsure where to start, give us a call as we have many qualified professionals eager to help you take the first step!

    References:
    – Wilkinson, 2016
    – Helms, 2022
    – Antonio, 2018

  • Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training

    If you are someone who frequently engages in strength training, the amount of protein you eat each day plays a major role in how much progress we can make in a specified amount of time. In this article we will discuss how much protein we should eat to make sure we are gaining strength as fast as possible. To take that a step further, we will also discuss how managing when we eat our protein surrounding our training time can help us improve even more!

    For those of us who engage in regular strength training, we should aim to eat a minimum of 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass (about 150g for a 150lb person). This amount has been scientifically proven to provide our bodies with more protein than we can break down during weight training. The most important factor regarding protein intake is the total amount we eat each day. Once we ensure we are eating enough to repair our muscles, we can then improve these results by eating more protein before and after our training sessions.

    If we were to consume, for example, 1 scoop of whey protein (~25 grams of protein) 1 hour before we begin training, we will actually begin recovering from our workout after the first rep of the first set, and so on – we don’t have to wait to recover until afterwards if we can get out in front of it. After each rep of our training sessions, our bodies quickly adapt by increasing the amount of amino acids (digested protein) our muscle cells can intake and use to repair. This increased nutrient absorption will continue to increase as we cause more cellular disruption to our muscle cells throughout the duration of our training sessions. Having protein in our systems before training will help improve our recovery but we can also get more out of our training sessions by including carbohydrates into our pre workout “meal”.

    Consuming carbohydrates with protein before training puts us into what we call the “fed state”. It has been scientifically proven that training in the “fed state” will increase our time to fatigue, increase our power output and force production in our muscles, and improve recovery following exercise – yes this is all from eating before training! One important consideration to make with a pre-workout meal is that larger meals take longer to digest – we should do our best to give our bodies enough time to digest and begin circulating these nutrients throughout our bloodstream to get into this “fed state” (training too soon will result in stomach cramps). Some examples would be 1 scoop of whey protein or 230g scrambled liquid egg whites (8 egg whites from actual eggs) with ~33g of carbohydrates (this would be equivalent to 0.5 cups of oats or a gomacro bar) ~1 hour before training – and remember, with larger meals we should give ourselves more time for digestion.

    If you are someone who trains first thing in the morning and do not have 1 hour before training we may not be able to train in the “fed state” but supplementing this pre workout meal with some branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) can provide a similar – but not the same – benefit as a pre workout meal. BCAA’s are just proteins already in the digested state so all your body has to do is quickly absorb them (in about 15-25 minutes). This way we can still begin the recovery process during our training – we just won’t have the increased force production and time to fatigue that we do when eating carbohydrates with our pre workout meal. Something important to note about BCAA’s is that they are ONLY effective when consumed on an empty stomach, without amino acids circulating in our bloodstream. If we were to take BCAA’s with a meal, we would just pee them out as our body will prefer to use digested protein sources.

    In order to maximize our strength gains, we need to ensure we are taking full advantage of our increased nutrient absorption during this “anabolic window” following training. Nutrient absorption remains elevated for ~3 hours following a hard training session so getting a well balanced meal in this time consisting of high quality fat sources, carbohydrates, and protein is of utmost importance. The meal should consist of at least 40-45g of protein (5-6 Oz. chicken breast or 8-9 Oz. Cod) with 50-60g carbohydrates (200-220g of dry brown rice or 7-8 Oz. dry Jasmine Rice). The oils we use when preparing our food will provide us with adequate fat consumption – if it is coming from a good source (cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil, for example) this will help our bodies with hormone regulation as optimal insulin and testosterone secretion will help our bodies recover and mobilize fat stores to be used as energy.

    If you are an individual who is very active throughout the day or someone who trains multiple times in one day, the carbohydrate recommendation post-workout will increase to 60-90g as we can utilize the anabolic window to quickly resynthesize our glycogen stores (energy stores within a muscle) and be energized and ready to go before the next time we are active later in the day. For the rest of us, the previous recommendation (50-60g carbs) will be sufficient as our bodies have no trouble resynthesizing these glycogen stores over a 24-hour time span with evenly distributed food intake throughout the day.

    The last thing we will touch on is one more way to utilize the “anabolic window”. Since this window is open for almost 3 hours, and we know that 1 scoop of whey protein begins absorption after 1 hour, then we can come to the conclusion that if we drink a whey protein shake immediately following our training session, we will then be able to get 2 “meals” (if you can call a shake a meal) in before our increased nutrient absorption fully dissipates.

    The bottom line is that we need to ensure we are getting adequate protein (2.2g/kg body mass) throughout the day in order for any of this “meal timing” to actually provide us with any additional benefit. If you are someone who is looking to improve their strength, body composition, or get on a nutrition plan to help you reach your individual goals, then give PTS a call as we have many qualified professionals who are eager to get to work with you!

    References:

    – Helms, 2015
    – Mcnaughten, 2016
    – Moore, 2009
    – Tang, 2009
    – Trommelan, 2019
    – Wilkonson, 2018

  • How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)

    How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)

    Have ever noticed that you aren’t as strong or as coordinated as you once were, you’re not alone. As we age, our bodies inevitably lose strength and coordination due to a physiological phenomenon called “sarcopenia”. Without physical activity we will always be losing muscle mass as our bodies adapt to meet the demands of our everyday lives. We lose on average 5-15% of our muscle mass between the ages of 20-50 which ramps up as we get older and begin to lose a massive 30-40% of our muscle mass between the ages of 50-80.

    A significant loss in muscle mass like this results in losses in functional ability (ability to perform everyday tasks like standing from a chair or brushing your teeth), and an increase in frailty, physical disability and risk of falls. Falls can significantly reduce life expectancy of older adults if an otherwise “healthy” person falls and breaks a hip, they may need hip surgery followed by lengthy physical therapy (sometimes upwards of 8-12 months) with no guarantee that their functional ability will be able to return to what it was previously and may even be left with a physical disability depending on the severity of the injury.

    All of these possible negative health outcomes due to physical inactivity can be avoided if we just ensure we do what we can to prevent sarcopenia. In order for our muscles to become stronger – and avoid losing muscle mass – we can engage in any type of resisted physical activity. This can come in many different forms, from walking the neighborhood with hand and ankle weights to resistance training in a gym using dumbbells and barbells (the most effective) to walking laps in a pool with chest high water or even just performing daily body weight exercises – anything that provides more difficulty and resistance than we normally experience throughout our daily lives. There are many activities we can incorporate into our lives to prevent sarcopenia but the most important factor to consider is that we must choose something that we enjoy doing in order to continue our progression for years to come.

    Engaging in regular resisted physical activity is one strategy we can use to prevent age-related loss of muscle mass. Another strategy we can implement is to make sure we are eating enough protein to repair our muscles from resistance training in order to improve our strength, not just prevent strength loss. One of the reasons older adults age ~80 and up lose muscle mass is because our bodies digest and absorb protein less efficiently as we age. For this reason, older adults aiming to prevent sarcopenia should aim to consume 1-1.3g protein per lb of body mass (150lb person should eat 150-200g protein per day). This is more similar to the protein recommendations for athletes as older adults need almost twice as much protein as younger adults to experience the same effect!

    Eating adequate protein through animal sources like meat can be difficult if we do not have enough time to cook all of our meals so in this case, we can meet our protein requirements by adding in some whey protein shakes throughout the day. Creatine can also be used as it has been shown to slow sarcopenia even with an inactive lifestyle but can have its effects improved with the addition of resistance training.

    Any type of resistance training will help prevent sarcopenia but the single most effective form of exercise to preserve and improve muscle mass is a safe and effective form of weight training with dumbbells, barbells and machines. Once you are certain progressive overload is being implemented to your resistance training program, we can completely largely reduce or even completely prevent sarcopenia from occurring and in turn, mitigate instances of falling, and improve our quality of life by reducing our risks of physical disability.

    If you are someone who isn’t as strong or as coordinated as you once were and want to make some changes, here at PTS we have many qualified professionals who are eager to help you reach your goals! Give us a call to find out more information on how to start getting an individualized program.

    References:
    – Jepsen, Ditte Beck et al. “Effect of whole-body vibration exercise in preventing falls and fractures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” BMJ open vol. 7,12 e018342. 29 Dec. 2017, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018342.
    – Tromp, A., Pluijm, S., Smit, J., Deeg, D., Bouter, L., & Lips, P. (2001). Fall-risk screening test. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 54(8), 837-844. doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(01)00349-3
    – DEVRIES, MICHAELA & PHILLIPS, STUART. (2014). Creatine Supplementation during Resistance Training in Older Adults-A Meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46, 1194-1203. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000000220
    – Nowson, C., & O’connell, S. (2015). Protein Requirements and Recommendations for Older People: A Review. Nutrients, 7(8), 6874-6899. doi:10.3390/nu7085311